2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ishikawa v. Speedball

7. Shuji Ishikawa v. Mike Bailey DDT 1/5

PAS: Really fun David v. Goliath match. Ishikawa is a lumpy WARish dude, kind of a poor man's Takeshi Ishikawa, and isn't afraid to hit hard and get kicked in the face and kneed in the kidneys. Bailey's moonsault double knee's are a nasty bit of offense and they are landed in cool ways, Ishikawa is on his hands and knees when they land which really makes them look hurty. There is a top rope version where Bailey flips right into a big knee. I also loved Ishikawa giant swinging Bailey right into chairs. Might have had a couple of 2 counts more then necessary, but it was fun stuff.

ER: If you gave me $1 for every gut busting Ishikawa knee I was willing to take, I would have zero dollars. Bailey would end up with far more dollars, because he is a crazy person who cares not about his own knees crashing into hard surfaces, nor meaty knees burying themselves into his stomach. Bailey flies into a bunch of crazy things with abandon - both his own wild moves and the beefy limbs of Ishikawa. We've all seen a zillion elbow exchanges over the years, so seeing these two break out kitchen sink knee exchanges is a real treat. Bailey is super fast and always seems to land well, he really is like a speedball bouncing around the ring. His lightning kick combo keeps getting faster, he throws in extra spins on kicks almost as if he was just getting bored, and he's got precise aim. Ishikawa is more of a lumpy bully, but able to surprise with speed bursts, a fun Takayama lite. I really got into the battle of knees, as Bailey tried a ton of moonsault and shooting star kneedrop combos and man do some of those landings kill, just points of knees right into the kidneys. But every time Bailey would miss (and crash knees first into the mat) Ishikawa would be there to dish some brutal kneelifts. We did roll into that overkill territory, where it felt like Bailey took way too much of a beating and kept kicking out the exact same way. It's a bummer that a vicious release dragon suplex can't even keep a guy on the mat for 5 seconds. Bailey gets dumped on his head and is back up kicking seconds later. I thought Ishikawa was pretty punishing down the stretch but felt his big moves were less big because of Bailey's kickouts. But we get a killer release German, an even better powerslam reversal with Bailey grabbing a dragon sleeper and dragging Ishikawa all the way down. The overkill was a bit much, but the work was a blast, no denying that.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 MOTY LIst: Togo v. Sasaki Ultimate Submissions

14. Dick Togo vs. Daisuke Sasaki DDT 4/14

PAS: This was a 30 minute submissions iron man, and was a real chance for Dick Togo to stretch it out. Sasaki isn't a guy with a ton of stand out attributes, but he is a solid guy all around and fits nicely around an ambitious Dick Togo match. This reminded me of the Togo retirement match run, where he would take a guy take everything he can do and build a classic around it. I don't normally think of Togo as a mat guy, but did some especially slick counter wrestling, especially grabbing at crossfaces and chokes. Togo gets an early lead until Sasaki goes after the knee, and the rest of the match is Togo trying to fight off an aggressive Sasaki with a bad wheel. Loved Togo's selling here especially how a his bad knee kept him from hitting his senton on the first try. I don't love draws in wrestling, but both guys got reasonable near falls off of scrambles. Overall great stuff and I am so glad to see Togo back at this level.

ER: This is an interesting premise that can make things difficult for traditional wrestling psychology. In a traditional wrestling match you tap out when you can't take any more punishment and you lose the match. Your limb or breathing gets pushed past the point of comfort, past your pain threshold, and you give up. In this match, if you get pushed past that same threshold...you still have to continue working a match. So it's a weird concept, and you'd think the psychology in this match would be to tap early in a submission, when you know you're in trouble but before big damage has been done. It's better to go down 0-1 than severely weaken a limb to leave it susceptible to more tapouts. So it bugged me out of the gate when Sasaki let his arm get completely worked over before tapping out, twice. What bugged me even more was after he went down 0-2 because of his wing...we never saw a whisper of arm trouble for the rest of the match. Togo stayed away from the arm - the same arm that got him up 2-0 - until the final 4 seconds of the match. Sasaki just acts like those two tap outs never happened and never even gives a hint of the screaming pain he was in when tapping out both times. It infuriates me the more I think about it. The final 20 minutes is worked as if the prior 10 minutes never happened, and it's easier to just pretend that first 1/3 didn't happen.

Because Sasaki taking apart Togo's leg was a blast, and Togo's selling was sympathetic and satisfying. Sasaki breaks out some of his best stuff, including a killer middle rope elbow drop to Togo's leg (later doing the same in the crowd off one of the seating tiers). The leg injury is compelling stuff, and I loved Sasaki playing dirty, knocking the ref into Togo on the buckles, sending Togo bumping nasty to the ropes to the apron and to the floor. I'm with Phil in that I don't really think of Togo as a mat guy, but his mat stuff here was killer. I could watch him roll into crossfaces all damn day, and his cannonball dive through the ropes is easily one of the best spots in wrestling. The draw finish was disappointing and I think the placement of the tapouts was poorly planned, but the work itself was excellent. Still, those psychology issues and at times total disregard for the actual match stipulations is going to keep this from the top tier MOTY level.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Reader Request: HARASHIMA v. Irie

HARASHIMA v. Shigehiro Irie DDT 2/28

To say I'm not as in tune with the modern Japanese wrestling scene as I was 15 years ago would be a colossal understatement. I had far more free time then, and liked far more Japan regulars, but it is a kind of cruel irony that my interest is so low at the point in time where accessibility is at its highest. To imagine a 2016 internet during my college years is to imagine a radically different self; I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to think that I would have been differently formed socially if I had near immediate access to Japan shows days after they happened during my formative years. I'm unsure if I would know what the voices of real human girls sounded like. Or, I would still attempt to talk to girls, but females would now hear me exclusively talking about my favorite Tokyo Gurentai undercarders (and believe me, I already brought up pro wrestling far too early in conversations with the opposite sex even back then).

So outside of checking in on some old, aging favorites now and then, I'm pretty oblivious to modern Japan. What I AM, however, what I am is open minded. So if somebody says I should check out a match, I almost always do, and I almost always give it a fair shake. Someone on Twitter mentioned I should watch this for potential 2016 MOTY inclusion, so why not? HARASHIMA had a wonderful match in 2014 that was kind of a surprise placement on our 2014 MOTY list, and Irie looks like Masao Inoue's teenage son going through V1.4 of his "acting out" phase. And I ended up loving...half of this. Maybe more than half if we're taking a total percentage. But I was certainly hooked for the first part. Long story short: Irie didn't have the selling to make any of the build mean anything. Long story long: HARASHIMA is a beast, and I think he broke out more pieces of offense in this match, more effortlessly, than I've ever seen. There were long stretches where he was just rolling from one thing to the next, like he literally had the ability to do any move he'd ever seen and could bust it out at will. Early on Irie misses a nasty charge into a ringside barrier, really running full steam ahead and crashing stomach first into the rail, rattling a door off its hinges in the process. And from there we get HARASHIMA just absolutely brutalizing Irie's upper torso. And I mean brutalizing it. There was a 6 minute stretch where it seemed like HARASHIMA had a 3 part checklist: Break Irie's torso; break Irie's ribs; make Irie shit his singlet. HARASHIMA really wanted all three of those things to happen. He just hits the most absurd and accurate stomps and knees to Irie's stomach. It's gross. Huge flying stomps, a great spot where he kneels into Irie's stomach while locking on a can opener, hard kicks to the guy, just all sorts of meanness. I don't care how strong your abs are, that punishment has to take a toll. Irie's selling during this was very satisfying, really putting over how much his breathing was affected, clutching at his ribs in that way you KNEW his whole core was killing him every time his lungs expanded his body. Irie had the power, and there were hope spots, but HARASHIMA cruelly ran this game.

And then, HARASHIMA landed a nasty reverse rana.....and Irie just kind of stood up. Now, it's certainly possible that part of his gimmick is that he's a stout, 5'7" guy with a cinderblock head and no neck, so conventional reverse ranas cannot harm him, and instead arouse him. That's possible. But to me it just looked like a guy taking 10 minutes of a beating and then casually standing up after the pinnacle of that beating. And things kind of continue like that until one devastating finisher gets a 3 count despite not looking any more or less devastating than several of the other devastating finishers that got anywhere between a zero-and-almost-three count. Irie leaps back into things seeming pretty okay after getting near disemboweled for much of the match, and the longer it goes the more he gets exposed as someone without longer term selling or the (understandably difficult) facial selling that comes with this kind of detail work. By the last few minutes Irie was made out to be quite invincible, which just made me not care about what it finally took to put him away. The nearfalls piled high, the interest dropped low. I liked Irie early when he looked like burly asskicker with exploitable weakness. Once the weakness got dropped and he became "guy who kicks out of stuff" they lost me. There was something there, though, and HARASHIMA looked legit amazing throughout. Again, his improv and ability to run from spot to spot to spot so naturally is something I've rarely seen. Usually you see a disconnect, some flicker in the eyes where a guy is zombie channeling his next moves like he was Bran Stark, but HARASHIMA just looked like a guy pulling punchlines out of nowhere, like he had every answer to questions Irie hadn't even begun thinking about. It was tremendously impressive and almost made me throw this on our 2016 MOTY List. But too much just got flushed in the home stretch. That said, this will surely make me more likely to seek more HARASHIMA, so there's our silver lining.

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2011 Match of the Year

Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda DDT 1/30/11

PAS: This was right in the middle of the unbeliveble Dick Togo retirement tour. He was having brilliant match after brilliant match, often with questionable dudes who never reached those heights before or after. Honda is a comedy guy and used to be Togo's partner in the DDT Italian Horseman. This is clearly the match of his life, and I give him a ton of credit for stepping up and bringing it to Togo like he did. Early part of the match had Honda working over Togo's arm. Togo did a really nice job selling, and it makes total sense to give him a ding to make Honda's offense credible, still Honda's attack was a little pedestrian. Match really kicks it into gear when Honda hits a nice tope and comes up bloody. After that, the match morphs into a Mid South Coliseum main event, with Togo working over the bloody babyface and Honda making awesome valiant comebacks. Togo has him in the corner, smashing his head into the turnbuckle and punching him, and Honda does a full on Lawler 1986 TX Death Match comeback, dropped strap, 17 punch combo ending in a huge uppercut for a near fall. Such a neat moment, which Togo sold perfectly. We get a big near fall run, which is really something that Dick Togo does better then anyone in the world, and then take a trip back to TN with an awesome Lawler v. Mantel style toe to toe punch exchange. Hell of match, the kind of thing only Dick Togo could deliver in 2011.

ER: This is one of those all-time special matches that completely exceed any sort of realistic expectations, at least if they had seen prior Antonio Honda matches. He's a guy who looks like a Masao Inoue/Maximo puro lovechild, and the only reason you would go out of your way to watch a match he's in is if Dick Togo was also in it. And this really is the match of his life. I think the opening armwork is a step above cursory, and it was an important part of the story as otherwise the match shouldn't have been so competitive. And while Honda's end of the armwork isn't interesting at every moment, TOGO'S end of things is awesome. The screams of agony when Honda would start manipulating pressure points made Honda seem like Stu Hart, and Togo seem like a guy who showed up at the Hart mansion with a greeting of "Every wrestler I've ever met is a pussy!" Togo's anguish sounded real to me, man, made me buy right into Antonio Honda and his goof mushroom cut. Togo peppers in some brief comebacks but Honda is always smart to aim for arm and take back over.

I have no idea how Honda got busted open, but Phil is right, things just change from that point forward. Togo starts working him over, like a Dick, punching his cut, raking his boot eyelets across Honda's head, just beating him up...and then Honda makes just the most awesome strap down Lawler comeback, throwing the biggest nastiest punches of his life and then the match kicks into an entire DIFFERENT awesome gear. This thing just keeps peaking and every time I think Honda is finished he makes another plausible comeback. Togo goes into awesome Togo overdrive, hits one of the all time great fistdrops, both guys keep emptying out the tool bag with some awesome offense, and misses lead to comebacks. Honda jams his fist into the mat on a missed middle rope fistdrop, Togo misses a senton, gets dumped with a huge suplex, this whole thing is just killer. Both guys go down in flames with maybe the greatest bombs exchange ever, both guys throwing blows simultaneously, just completely bonkers. But Honda goes down first and Togo plops him with the senton. What a special match.


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Togo/Speedball v. DAMNATION

28. Dick Togo/Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Daisuke Sasaki/Tetsuya Endo DDT 8/28

PAS: Nifty juniors tag with Dick Togo looking fully back and fully awesome. Whole match worked at double speed, this is one of the biggest crowds Speedball has ever worked (Sumo Hall so probably 10,000+) and he is going bonkers. He has a nutso kung fu sequence with Sasaki, hits all of his crazy big spots and even gets busted open. Togo looked spectacular, he hits a crazy tope con hilo, has an awesome punch exchange with Endo and does some really great counter submission wrestling rolling around for a crossface. For a spotfest tag this is about as good as it gets. I would love to see the Togo/Speedball tag team some more, they just gel.

ER: I thought this was a little scattered, and I thought Bailey was off a bit from all the other times I've seen him, thought we got some too long move set ups, but what made this for me was just nearing 50 Dick Togo still being an incredible wrestling force. But there's more meat to the match than "great wrestler still improbably great after long layoff", we get a bunch of fun spots and a go go pace. I didn't get a big feel of DAMNATION during this, couldn't tell if they were heel or face, but when they weren't brushing hair out of their eyes they were great receivers of Togo/Speedball offense. The big flying moments were wild (Togo hits one of the topes of the year, and Bailey follows it up with a shooting star to the floor) and we get some fun strike exchanges that took me back to Low Ki/Amazing Red. But really this is all about Togo and the Togo is great. Everything he does looks fresh and has great energy, those crossfaces and STFs look brutal, his dropkicks are among the best in wrestling, and he really just looked like a guy who hasn't missed a beat while being away. His presence is still one of my favorite things in wrestling. Though I hope he bought Speedball something nice after accidentally braining him with a chair while breaking up a pin. It's gotta be a bummer to get busted open by friendly fire.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo's Money Count is the Only Moment of Silence

Dick Togo/Yasu Urano vs. Kazusada Higuchi/Kouki Iwasaki DDT 7/17/16 - FUN

We get a about half of this 2nd Togo return match, and it was fun to watch Togo tool some schmoes. Higuchi is kind of a Japanese Lance Hoyt, sort of big, but kind of clumsy. Togo breaks out this amazing combo as he rolls through, hits a casita and immediately slaps on the crossface. He also levels Higuchi with a nasty clothesline. We get a big senton to finish the match, I wasn't impressed with the other three guys so I am not devestated we missed most of this, but it was a fun opportunity to see the level that Togo is still at. This is Jordan after baseball, not Jordan on the Wizards.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Yeah Come Holla At Ya Uncle, Dick Togo Understands He's Back by Popular Demand

Dick Togo/Antonio Honda vs. Yasu Urano/Guanchulo DDT 7/3/16 - GREAT

LOOK WHO'S BACK!! Dick Togo returns from wandering the earth like Caine and is back doing what he does better then anyone. All of the regular DDT guys looked fine, their stuff is a little showy, but Urano had some nice looking shots including a great foreamr smash. I always liked Honda's Lawler punches and he took a good high backdrop. Still Togo was the star, landing everything with precision and not missing a step. I especially loved his casita which he rolled right into a crossface, just an awesome bit of business. We got to see that floating senton which was gorgeous. This was more of a showcase and a return I am really excited to see what Togo will do next.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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SLL's All-Request Friday Night 3/20/2015

Ron Starr vs. Leo Burke (AGPW, 1980's)
Requested by Mr. Lacelle

We kick off the lean, mean, new-look All-Request with my attempt to court the important "Dave Musgrave" demographic. This is actually my first exposure to Leo Burke. I'm looking forward to him being more than just a running gag. Actually, I think the thing I ended up liking most about this match was the commentary of Buddy Lane. He sounds very grandfatherly, and describes the match in much the same manner I imagine most people would describe fly fishing. This took a few minutes to get into gear, but Starr really started laying into Burke. Still, despite the excellent beatdown, I do think the highlight of the match is the announcers' discussion of Starr's valet Peaches.

Rod Trongard-Sounding Guy: Question I have right now is...why does Ron Starr even bother to have a manager? Peaches has contributed nothing to this match!
Lane: Well...maybe she looks after his out-of-the-ring activities, such as, uh, airline tickets, negotiating matches...uh, his investments all over the world....
RT-SD: Are you saying she has brains as well as beauty?!
Lane: Well, he obviously has her around for some reason.

My main observation of Burke is that he has a funny way of bumping and eating offense. It sort of reminds me of when Chris Masters was first starting to get really good, and message board dullards would try to shoot him down by - amongst other things - bitching about how he bumped or ate offense. "Oh, he fell off the apron and landed on the concrete like this. Sure, it still looked like it hurt, but he was supposed to do it like this." Leo Burke seems like a guy who people with shitty taste in wrestling would hate. "That DiBiase bump Burke did was really ugly. Oh sure, he looked like he really fucked up his neck and shoulder doing it, but everyone knows wrestling is about grace and delicacy!" After taking a chair to the head, Burke reaches his breaking point, and heads to the ring with a chair of his own, looking he's about to channel Buzz Sawyer. Badass. Of course, Peaches cheats to win. I guess that's what she was there for.

Masa Takanashi vs. Yuji Hino (DDT, 5/4/12)
Requested by Brandon-E

The pre-match video package is set to "Desperado"? Well, I hope this ends with Terry Funk and Sabu wrapped in barbed wire. Also, is it wrong that there's a woman interviewed here who, before she spoke, I just naturally assumed was a man? Not because she's really manly in any way, mind you, but because it's puro in the 2010's. I literally had no reason to suspect that a cisgendered woman wasn't Hiroshi Tanahashi on his day off.

Man, Takanashi is one scrawny dude. He's a guy I've seen a bunch of times before, but I always forget about him, because I always forget about everyone on the DDT roster unless they're an inanimate object. Although I do remember Takanishi last year having a great match with HARASHIMA (and I remember HARASHIMA, but that's a story for another day) built around him as this weird lamprey eel who latched onto HARASHIMA's body and kept turning into submissions and pin attempts. That's not what happened here. This was more about HARASHIMA as your scrawny guy doing American heel schtick. Think a watered down, fifth-rate SUWA, and you're not far off the mark. He loses a test of strength. He gains a momentary advantage and then commits the cardinal sin of pointing to his forehead to indicate intelligence before losing it. The ref gets bumped, and he almost wins the match when he pulls an Eddy Guerrero-style fakeout where he tosses his belt to Hino and pretends that Hino hit him with it. This is an act I usually like in puro. Hell, I stuck up for Kotaro Suzuki when he was doing it. Kotaro Suzuki, people! I don't know...maybe Takanashi just doesn't have the conviction? Or maybe it's just that I've seen this enough times that you can't just trot the shtick out and expect me to pat you on the back for it.

Anyway, Afro GM says "no dice" to Takanashi's chicanery, and that's when Hino starts to turn things around. Thankfully, "things" include "this match", because Hino really smacks the shit out Takanashi here. Seriously, ouch. I read earlier today that Hino and Yuji Okabayashi are going to be wrestling the Twin Towers late tonight. If nothing, this match succeeded in really making me want to see that, because I imagine he'd be a lot of fun teeing off against those two. Takanashi makes a comeback and starts working over Hino's knee. It's alright, and Takanashi has a neat standing STF in there. Hino catches Takanashi with a pair of really nice looking deadlift throws, though I kinda question the wisdom of doing them right after having your knee worked over. And then, not long after that, they go into the finishing stretch, which really is just a bunch of finisher and nearfall exchanges that has nothing to do with the rest of the match. It's not bad, per se. There was some cool stuff in there, like Hino's splash and his super CB4 driver. But the rest of the match did seem like it was building up to something, none of which really paid off here, and instead, we got a finishing sequence that really could have been preceded by anything. And then there was this really weird part at the end after the aforementioned super CB4 driver, where Takanashi slowly climbs to his feet and tries to fight back, all while making faces and gesticulating like a graduate of the Adam Copeland School of Wrestling Theatrics. He had been acting kinda goofy the whole match, but I was OK with it, since he was playing a kinda goofy character. Here...I think they wanted me to take him seriously. Instead, I kinda just said "fuck this match", and fortunately, Hino ended it soon afterwords. In hindsight, that was slightly harsh of me. This match wasn't bad, but in the true Websterian sense of the word, I have no desire to ever see it again.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

14. HARASHIMA v. Masa Takanashi DDT 2/23/14

ER: Hot match that threatens to go into overkill but doesn't, with some cool move sequences that I've never seen. I'd seen HARASHIMA before but definitely have not seen Takanashi, as I would have remembered him. He works fairly unconventional, not quite like the first time you saw somebody like Johnny Saint, but kind of like that. His unpredictable spark added to the match, but could almost just as easily been obnoxious. You heard it hear, Takanashi walks the line of innovative and obnoxious, in about as entertaining manner possible. HARASHIMA was the glue in this one but it was wild watching Takanashi climb all over him like a spider monkey. You've seen a million Code Red spots at this point, but I've never seen one where another man is literally clinging to another man's body, crawling all over him for leverage. Elaborate reversal sequences often come off far too choreographed, with the workers having vacant expressions as they try to remember the timing of 1-2-3 Duck 5-6 Jump 2-3 Knee 5-6 (indy spot monkeys clearly do moves in 6/8 time signature). But a lot of the misses and hits and memory spots here looked really cool. I really liked HARASHIMA committing to miss a Shining Wizard and flying knee first into the turnbuckle. I dug Takanashi putting a neat twist on the Lady in the Lake spot by turning into a nasty armlock (with his feet!). These two seemed to complement each other really well. I'm not sure they could have this good a match with other opponents, though I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, it felt like something different which isn't something you get much in current wrestling. Wrestling Takanashi must be like wrestling a boa constrictor or one of those face huggers from Alien. He just hangs all over HARASHIMA and uses body contact to transition into submissions and roll ups. Meanwhile when HARISHIMA was able to get a little separation he would brutalize the little guy, there was some especially violent looking stomps to the chest. This never got no selly or excessively 2.9y which are the major flaws of current Puro. I am not sure this is a matchup that would survive lots of repetition as I am not sure if this would be as much fun if the newness was gone, but the first time it was great.

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Dick Togo's What Dreams Are Made Of, Cocaine Ronald Gave Us

Dick Togo vs. Sanshiro Takagi DDT 9/28/08 - EPIC 

PAS: Wild insane cage match. Truly a testament to Dick Togo's skill as a big match worker. Takagi isn't very good at all, he has an ok punch and is willing to go head first into a cage and bleed. That is all Togo needs. Match starts out a bit slow, but Togo cuts open Takagi and it gets great quick. Togo rips open the cut with chain shots and the ring post bolt and it turns into a real slugfest. Togo's selling at the end of the match was amazing, one of the cooler thousand yard stares I have seen in wrestling. There are a bunch of moments in this match where Togo and Takagi are covered in blood throwing right hands, and there are also huge holy shit spots like a top rope stunner and a no water in the pool missed senton off the top of the cage. Pretty much a perfect meld of the 80s bloodbath cage match and 00's spotfest cage match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo Behind the Scene Pull Strings Like Geppetto, The Gun Blow Steam Whistle Like a Tea Kettle

Dick Togo/Scott Norton/Don Frye vs. Masahiro Chono/Kohei Sato/Eric Young PWE 10/25/08 - SKIPPABLE 

PAS: On paper this looks like an awesome random WAR six man, but it didn't like up to any of that promise. Chono and Norton start out and neither guy looks like he should be in the ring at this point. Young and Togo run through a wrestling school juniors section, Togo and Sato have some fun stuff, and Eric Young does a great convulsion sell on a Frye punch, but outside of that we had nothing. Frye is usually ridiculously charismatic, but he was bland here. Don't ruin the match in your head by watching the match on the computer. Dick Togo v. Shinya Ishikawa BJW 5/3/09-EPIC I can't remember seeing Togo work this kind of violent potato fest match before, and he is great at it. You get the sense that Togo could slot right into a FUTEN show and fit like a glove. The main problems I have with most Strong BJ wrestling is the lack of selling, emotion and structure. At its worst it is just two guys standing in front of each other throwing forearms. Of course there isn't anyone in wrestling better and inserting selling, emotion and structure into a match then Dick Togo. So we get all the violence without any of the problems. Togo really works over the kid, especially his ribs, smashing them with knees and an especially nasty double stomp. Ishikawa gets a couple of big comebacks, including a really stiff dropkick which Togo just flies on. Not particularly long, but really fun to watch and very cool to see Togo do something different so well. 

Dick Togo vs. Gedo DDT 6/30/11 - GREAT 

PAS: The curtain goes down on a great career with a great match. Togo is walking away at the height of his prowess, arguably the best wrestler in the world, on the best run of his career. Gedo is currently the best wrestler he has faced during this singles run, although this isn't the best match. Execution in this match is great, both guys hit what they do very well. The match starts with some solid as a rock basic mat wrestling. Gedo gets out wrestled and decides to brawl, smashing Togo in the ribs with a chair and ring bell hammer. Togo takes a huge bump ribs first into the ring post. We get a great Memphis punch exchanges, some exciting near falls, and a beautiful Togo tope and floating senton. Despite the brawling which looked great, I never thought this took the extra step into a grasping violent war, like the best of this Togo series. In a way that is fine, maybe a retirement match should be a guy running through his greatest hits with a good dance partner, and this was a great version of that, really enjoyed it, but Togo raised the EPIC bar in 2010-11 and this didn't clear it. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo is Rondo on The Bongos When Give You His Convos

Dick Togo/Sho Funaki/Men's Teioh vs. TAKA Michinoku/Bradshaw WWF Over the Edge 5/31/98 - FUN 

PAS: All of the TAKA vs. Kaientai stuff was really good, especially any time Togo and TAKA matched up. Togo unloaded probably the fastest and most awesome powerslam in his long storied career of fast and awesome powerslams, and he just launched himself with the senton bomb. Bradshaw sold nothing and just ragdolled Kaientai like midget jobbers, and it wasn't even that nasty of a beating. It was a big mistake to have Kaientai wear street clothes, Togo looks fine in his Mikey Whipwreck shirt and jorts, but both Funaki and Teioh look like middle school kids in their hoodies and jeans. Togo and TAKA were cooking though, too bad they never really got a chance to have a long singles during this period. 

Dick Togo vs. HARASHIMA DDT 2/27/11 - GREAT 

PAS: Another off the charts Togo singles match, he is really on a hell of run having great and varied singles match, all with pretty limited guys. HARASHIMA is sort of a Chris Dickinson to Marifuji's Davey Richards, basically a slightly more tolerable tribute act to the intolerable original. Early part of the match is Togo working as Ric Flair. HARASHIMA misses a kick into the ringpost and Togo does a nice job working it over, including a fun Nature Boy style battle around a figure four. After that section we have a juniors near fall run, which normally isn't my thing. Togo however totally makes this with his facial selling and charisma. The look on his face when HARASHIMA kicks out of the pedigree/senton combo was great, and when HARASHIMA hits the KO kick, you buy that Dick got his lights snuffed. I loved the very end with Togo snatching HARASHIMA out of mid air with a crossface and battling to hold on to it, including when HARASHIMA breaks it whipping out a satellite headscissors right back into the crossface, and then shifting it into a choke with HARASHIMA's own arm, awesome ending, great carry job, don't go Dick Togo, don't go. 

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Arik Cannon/1-2-3 Kid/Darin Corbin CHIKARA 4/15/11 - SKIPPABLE 

PAS: Terrible match. There was a couple of entertaining Waltman vs. Shinzaki moments, Togo hit two nice sentons, and Sasuke did a flip dive onto concrete, but everything else stunk. The slow motion wrestling spot Corbin does is one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen in a wrestling match, and pretty much everything I hate about winking US indy comedy wrestling. Even worse is he breaks it out a second time in the middle of the end run of the match, killing any momentum they were trying to build. Cannon looked like refried shit in the match too, timing was off, moves looked bad, just completely lost. There was one moment where Sasuke hits a spin kick, where Cannon turns around, looks outside, and just jumps to the floor. It looked bad enough that I thought for a second it was his signature comedy bump. Corbin wrestles in slow motion, maybe Cannon awkwardly pauses before all of his bumps. Complete waste of the MPRO team and Waltman, and a huge disappointment. Really glad I didn't drive to Philly.

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Aero Dynamic, Roof Panoramic, My Credit Score let Dick Togo Take Full Advantage

Dick Togo vs. Masato Yakushiji MPRO 3/1/97 - FUN 

PAS: This is one of my favorite match ups in any MPRO trios match, but it doesn't deliver at that level as a singles match. Part of it was just expectations, Yakushiji hits some ranas and headscissors really fast, but not at the 4x FF level you will see in other matches. There is also one really blown spot, which is kind of strange because these two usually have their stuff down so well. Plenty to like, Togo hits a great looking Buzz Sawyer x2 powerslam, and the finishing Senton looks great, but this wasn't transcendent like I was hoping for. 

Dick Togo vs. Hikaru Sato DDT 11/28/10 - EPIC 

PAS: Just a tremendous match the best Togo singles I have seen so far and one of the best matches of 2010. Sato isn't someone I have thought much of in the past. The cat maid cosplay is everything that grosses me out about Japan, and here is rocking a nasty herp on his lip which doesn't help me get comfortable. He is however, a guy who will deliver enough violent offense to really put Togo in danger. The work on the leg was really nasty including some very nasty kicks to the kneecap and thigh. He also wasn't afraid to loosen fillings with punches and slaps. I liked a lot of the early scrambling for holds, with Togo pulling out some really Fujiwarish counters into crossfaces, and Sato putting in some nice submission attempts too. The finish of this match really brings it over the top. Sato rolls into a super nasty looking figure four ankle lock, and Togo does a great job of desperately going to the rope. Then Dick hits this amazing desperation one leg super kick, flips Sato to the floor, pedigrees him on said floor, and then lands a rolling senton which is one of the prettiest highspots you will ever see. Just breathtaking, leading into in ring pedigree and Senton. Spectacular final run, capping off a classic match. If you ever liked a Dick Togo match, you will dig the fuck out of this. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Folks Rush In, 3 Letters try to Stop It. D-I-C-K-T-O-G-O, One Letter Short but Motherfuck the D.A.

Dick Togo/GENTARO vs. Takashi Sasaki/Masashi Takeda FREEDOMS 10/28/10 - GREAT

This was a workrate tag match, kind of the indy Japan version of a ROH Briscoes tag. That isn't my type of wrestling at all, but Dick Togo is the great style equalizer. This kind of match is normally judged on the coolness of moves and the amount of overkill, however Togo's little spots were cool enough that he added and extra dimension. It did well on the two normally criteria though. I thought the end of this match felt like the end, with GENTARO hitting a sweet looking bridged Saito suplex while Togo slapped on a crossface. There was a bunch of cool moves too, Sasaki countered a flying clothesline with a kick to the stomach, Takeda hitting a top rope northern lights suplex. Could have used a dive train, and maybe some cool double teams. Also there was one spot where GENTARO was on the top rope and Sasaki kept spanking his ass, I guess he was trying to knock him off the top but it was weird. Wouldn't be the best match on a PWG show, but would probably be in the top 3.

Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda DDT 1/30/11 - EPIC

The Dick Togo singles match train continues. Gem after gem, his last six months have been incredible. Honda is a comedy guy an used to be Togo's partner in the DDT Italian Horseman. This is clearly the match of his life, and I give him a ton of credit for stepping up and bringing it to Togo like he did. Early part of the match had Honda working over Togo's arm. Togo did a really nice job selling, and it makes total sense to give him a ding to make Honda's offense credible, still Honda's attack was a little pedestrian. Match really kicks it into gear when Honda hits a nice tope and comes up bloody. After that, the match morphs into a Mid South Coliseum main event, with Togo working over the bloody babyface and Honda making awesome valiant comebacks. Togo has him in the corner, smashing his head into the turnbuckle and punching him, and Honda does a full on Lawler 1986 TX Death Match comeback, dropped strap, 17 punch combo ending in a huge uppercut for a near fall. Such a neat moment, which Togo sold perfectly. We get a big near fall run, which is really something that Dick Togo does better then anyone in the world, and then take a trip back to TN with an awesome punch Lawler v. Mantel style toe to toe punch exchange. Hell of match, the kind of thing only Dick Togo can deliver in 2011. If he really retires in June it will be at the height of his game, like Jordan leaving in 93, lets hope Togo does a season of minor league baseball and returns to the game

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Manami Toyota CHIKARA 4/16/11 - FUN

The Chikara trios matches continue to be disappointing. Everyone in this match it as least a solid wrestler, but it never felt like they got on the same page. Togo was the best guy in the match, although it may have been the least spectacular Togo match I have seen in this project. He was a bunch of fun smacking around Toyota, making great asshole faces. I enjoyed Jigsaw here too, as he hit a pretty tope and moved around well. Everyone else was pretty MIA. You kept wanting this match to explode in a crazy run, and it never really did. The finish especially felt really flat. This didn't have as many things to hate as the opening round match, but it didn't have a ton to love either.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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